Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Chapter 133 Crossing the River

The dogs in the game all look like Babas, but Miko in the other world has fluffy black long hair, which glows with a brocade-like luster after being nourished by bear meat. It has a wide head, a short nose, and strong limbs. It is slightly shorter than Babas, but more robust. I think it may be some kind of sled dog. Helgi said that Miko can tell some relatively complete stories like a five or six-year-old child. It is said that when its owner adopted it, he was already very old and in poor health. Miko spent at least three winters with his owner as a hunting dog. Until ten sunsets ago, it found that the owner did not get up, and then realized that the old man had died of illness.

Helgi would take time out every day to communicate with Miko using the spell that Babas taught her. This spell can only be used once a day and lasts for about an hour. The most outrageous time was when I saw the little girl, two dogs and a wolf around the campfire. Agis also squatted on the ground, supporting his hands in front of him, meowing. The wolf followed us for a while the next morning, and then went back into the woods, looking back every few steps.

We soon discovered the magic of this spell. On the third day after Miko joined the team, Helgi learned from two crows that a group of people were driving several ox carts along the official road. We hid in the bushes and soon found the team. It should be the transport team of the Imperial Legion, with a dozen soldiers escorting four carts of supplies, probably food and equipment. Since then, Helgi began to pay attention to the information brought by various animals, and soon got a piece of information that worried us: the number of soldiers in Longqiao Town suddenly increased.

Due to the limitations of animal intelligence and expression ability, we have no way of judging whether these soldiers are the imperial legions under Tullius or the guards of Hafingar who obey Elisif. We only know that there are more fully armed warriors in Dragon Bridge Town.

We are currently at the confluence of the western branch of the Yar River and the Kaas River. The two rivers have broken through the rocks of the mountains, forming several spectacular waterfalls here. The Dragon Bridge spans the largest canyon of the Kaas River. This stone bridge has a long history. According to legend, it was built by the ancient Nords in the First Age. It is named after the two dragon head statues on the bridge. Considering the great difference between the stonework technology of the bridge and the carving style of the dragon heads, some scholars believe that they are real dragon head skull fossils, while others dismiss this statement as the ravings of a drunkard. However, considering that the Nords have no reliable history, their so-called history is actually nothing more than absurd myths and legends, so both sides obviously cannot provide convincing evidence.

Dragon Bridge is the boundary between Hafingar, Armar and Reach, and Dragon Bridge is located on the north of the bridge. As the southern gate of Hafingar, I expected that this place would be heavily guarded, but why the sudden increase of troops? On the way, we met a team transporting supplies to Armar, which shows that the Imperial Legion is still in a stalemate on the northern frontier of the Cangyuan border. As for the Reach in the south, it is very large and has a rugged terrain, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. I don't think Balgruuf or Ulfric have the ability to penetrate the Reach and threaten Dragon Bridge in the short term. And the Lord of the Reach, Igmund, has just seized control of the town of Loristed with the support of the Lords' Council of Solitude. He is unlikely to betray Tullius and Elisif.

After my analysis, there are three possibilities left.

The first possibility is that according to the plot in the game, Vanius, a resident of Dragonbridge, went to the Solitude Palace to report to Lord Elisif about the abnormality of the Wolf Skull Cave. This cave is located in the Kirkreath Mountains. Inside the cave is a huge ancient castle, where a group of necromancers tried to summon Potema, the Wolf Queen, the Lord of Solitude in the Third Age. The noise they made caused panic among the local residents, and Lord Elisif promised to send more troops to Dragonbridge to appease the people.

The second possibility is that although Dragonbridge is located in the heart of the Empire, the area is not safe. There are guerrilla warfare by the remnants of the Stormcloaks and camps of the Forsworn. In particular, the Deepwood Stronghold to the west is one of the largest tribes of the Reachmen in the north. These guys will naturally not let the locals live and work in peace and contentment. Perhaps it was under their pressure that the lord strengthened the guards here. After all, the Stormcloaks control two of the three port cities in Skyrim, and the logistics of the Empire rely heavily on land transportation. If something unexpected happens in Dragonbridge, it will be like cutting off the main artery for Tullius to deploy troops and supplies to other territories.

The third possibility is that our whereabouts have been exposed, and the enemy has been waiting for us to fall into the trap. Although I think the possibility of this happening is very small, others do not think so. Hayu was fiddling with the campfire with a sad face, while Helgi was chatting with a fox. The little guy escaped the clutches of the hunters in Longqiao Town during the day and is still in shock. Agis no longer imitates the cat's meow, because Helgi said that her meow sounded like the meaningless moans of a drunk person under the spell.

"So, Locke, let's find a way to cross the river and go around the town."

Hayou threw away the branch in his hand, as if he had finally made up his mind.

"But you also saw..."

I pointed to the river below the cliff in the distance. The Cass River and the Yar River tributary meet here, forming an extremely wide river. Thanks to the waterfall upstream, the water flow is also very turbulent. God knows what dangers are hidden under those whirlpools that appear from time to time. On one side are white waves, and on the other side are undercurrents. The risk of swimming across is too great, but we don't have a boat.

Helgi fed her fox friend a piece of dried meat, patted the little guy on the head, and let it go. The little girl stood up and grabbed the bow and arrow at hand.

"I have an idea. Aigis, let's go hunting!"

Agis jumped up, wagging his tail along with the two dogs, and disappeared into the night with Helgi, leaving Hayu and I looking at each other in bewilderment.

The little cat girl returned to the camp at daybreak. She threw the two goats in her hands to the ground, left a word, and ran away in a hurry.

"Helgi asked Lord Locke and Brother Hayou to prepare some pine wood to make a raft."

I originally thought that I would never do such a stupid thing as chopping trees with a long sword in my life. However, neither Hayou nor I prepared an axe, so we had to carry our weapons and look for those pine trees that were not too thick. Fortunately, we seized two more long swords from Movas's lair, so even if the blade of the one in our hand broke, we could have a replacement. I already understood Helgi's plan. This girl must want to make a sheepskin raft. It's a good idea, but it will make the little animals in this forest suffer.

Finally, we paid the price of three swords, cut down two pine trees, and cut them into three-meter-long logs. During this time, Miko and Agis took turns to bring back the prey. Helgi also returned to the camp and began to deal with the carcasses of a deer and four sheep. The little girl was not satisfied with the result. While urging Agis and Babas to keep up the good work, she skillfully cut off the sheep's head, carefully separated the sheepskin and mutton with a dagger, and then carefully took out the peeled mutton. Soon, she hung a sheepskin bag on the tree branch. Helgi used his tendons as thread and his bones as needles to sew up the holes in the leather bag one by one, leaving only one front leg as an inflation port.

I was responsible for boiling the sheep oil and pouring it into the sewn leather bag. The little girl said that after the sheep oil solidifies, it can block the gaps and prevent the raft from leaking. Hayou was smoking mutton jerky on the side, and it seemed that we had a place to eat for the next few days. Helgi puffed his cheeks, blew air into the sheepskin, then rubbed his hands with satisfaction and walked towards the deer.

“I didn’t expect you would do this.”

Hayou was blinded by the smoke and slipped over to Helgi to make small talk in order to cover up his laziness.

"This is my first time making something myself, too. This is still... ah!"

Helgi's eyes turned red when she was stabbed by the bone needle. She put her finger in her mouth and sucked it for a while, and when she raised her face again, she was smiling.

"This was taught to me by Brother Zoltan. He found a good fishing spot on an island in the middle of the river, so he made a raft and took me there. We secretly ate grilled fish before returning home. The fish was really delicious, but unfortunately I didn't know Brother Locke at the time, and I didn't know how to cook fish soup. If it were summer, we could just hold these sheepskin bags and swim across the river, but it's still too cold now, and the river is too wide..."

The little girl kept talking, fearing that if she stopped, she would be knocked down by the pain from her fingertips again. Hayou realized that he had started a wrong topic, so he just laughed it off and left me alone with Helgi under the pretext of going to smoke some dried meat.

"Helgi, this time...is that enough? I'm so tired..."

Aigis dragged a deer back to the camp, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, put his hands on his hips and panted heavily.

"Enough! Enough! Come and help me. Brother, move your mutton fat pot away, it stinks!"

Helgi laughed and shooed me away.

It took nearly two days to make the raft, and the smoke from the smoked meat attracted several robbers. These unfortunate guys were spotted by Helgi's fox friend from a distance, which allowed me to calmly prepare a unique welcome ceremony for them. When a three-meter-high ice block appeared out of thin air between the three people, their fear was imaginable, not to mention that the ice block was waving its hammer-like arms vigorously. The minions didn't even see their real target before they broke their bones and died.

After Falion's instruction, I was able to summon the element of ice. What made me even more proud was that Helgi used the same method but failed. This undoubtedly shows that the upper limit of the genius girl's magic power is not as high as mine. The little girl was very indifferent to this matter, and still read the notebook given by Falion every day step by step. This precious material is divided into two volumes. The first volume is about the theory and practice of magic, with neat handwriting and beautiful strokes. I guess it was copied by his apprentice Agni. The second volume is some essays, some of which are immature flashes of inspiration, and some are hearsay and unconfirmed rumors. There are also two articles that Falion recorded his experiences in the journey of Oblivion. The content is messy, the handwriting is sloppy, and there are many correction marks. It is probably written by Falion and then compiled into a book.

Helgi only read the summoning part of the first volume, and then read the story in the second volume every day. In her words, Falion's magic theory is too obscure and difficult to understand. She needs to go back home and find a quiet environment to study carefully. I also found this problem. The wizards I met before mostly paid attention to the transition from practice to theory when teaching magic. They first taught spells, and then summarized the commonalities of the same type of spells, and finally summarized the characteristics of the magic of this department. Falion's notes went the other way, first talking about the nature and theory of magic, and then extending it to specific spells. At my current level, it is indeed challenging to read. The wizard himself should have realized this problem. The sentence he mentioned most often in his notes was "You just believe my inference for the time being."

Helgi carefully wrapped the two notebooks in several layers of wolf skin. I also packed my luggage. Hayu and Miko pushed the raft into the river and tried a short voyage. We chose to cross the river in the early morning, using the mist in the mountains as a cover to avoid being discovered by the guards of Longqiao Town on the top of the mountain. We were swept far downstream by the turbulent river, but fortunately the raft was stable and did not fall apart. Barbas and Miko swam while trying their best to maintain the direction of the raft, so that we reached the other side safely.

This is the territory of Hafingar. In front of us is a mountain with dense coniferous forests. Hayu and I hurriedly removed the vines that bound the raft, and then dragged the leather bags and wood into the forest and hid them. Agis and Helgi began to look for a suitable camping site. Our destination is the abandoned temple of Meridia in the Kirkreth Mountains. It must be to the north of us, but the exact location is still uncertain. Helgi decided to find the animals in the forest to talk first.

The new friend the little girl found this time was so terrifying that Agis, who loved to join in the fun, hid in a tree. It was an adult black bear, lying on the ground at a height that reached Helgi's shoulders, with a signature crescent-shaped white fur on its chest. It sat on the ground with its legs apart and ate half of our dried meat and all the wild fruits we had just picked. Helgi obviously understood the black bear's low roar. She patted the bear's paws while chatting and laughing, and the big guy shook his head and lay down next to the campfire.

"You're not going to let it stay in the camp overnight?"

Aigis poked his head out from the bushes.

"Brother Xiong said there are armed people in this forest, and it can lead us around them."

I suspect that the people Black Bear is talking about are the guerrillas left here by the Stormcloaks, because there is a camp of theirs nearby in the game, but I am more concerned about the location of the temple. Regarding this question, Helgi said that Black Bear did not know.

"Its territory is located on these two hills. There are no buildings in the territory, but there is a road built by humans on the other side of the hill. Big Brother Bear has never been to the other side of the road."

Helgi pointed to the north. Then, this road is most likely the official road from Solitude to Dragonbridge. Meridia's temple is on the top of the mountain on the north side of the road. The little girl got Meridia's beacon from Moira at the beginning of the Morning Star month. Now it is the second seeding month. From January to May, after so long, we can finally put an end to this matter.